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And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.
— Mark 9:2-8

One of the interesting musings about the appearance of Elijah and Moses at Christ’s transfiguration involves the curiosity of their bodily presences in heaven. Elijah, as we know, didn’t die but was taken up by God into heaven on chariots of fire. The death of Moses is more curious, as we are told that the Lord himself buried Moses and nobody knew where his grave was (Deuteronomy 34). That he died is not really in dispute — that seems clear enough from the text — but that his body was “handled” by God, that it was mysteriously hidden, and that it strangely turns up again in Jude 1:9, where we are told Michael and Satan are arguing over it, makes for very heady speculation.

What Elijah, Moses, and Jesus are talking about is not recorded. This lends credibility to the scene as an historical event. (You might expect a fabricated scene to include some fabricated dialogue between the three.) It is likely that the disciples couldn’t hear.

Peter, as he is wont to do, cannot not do anything. He proposes a set of three tabernacles, one for each of their heavenly presences. He wants to make himself useful, and he is thinking theologically. A good Jew wants to be a good host to a manifestation of God’s glory.

But Peter doesn’t yet understand that Jesus is the tabernacle. That his incarnation is in fact the glory of God tabernacling with his people: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt” — (literally, tabernacled) — “among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

The last verse of the Transfiguration scene (Mark 9:8) is very important. Moses and Elijah in effect disappear. And only Jesus is left. As Moses and Elijah are representative of “the Law and the Prophets,” who individually and collectively have all pointed to Jesus, this moment in the transfiguration event is emblematic of Christ as summation of all the Old Testament expectation. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. He is the embodiment of the transition from old covenant to new.

Jesus is himself the manifestation of God’s law perfectly done, the lone worker of perfect righteousness. He is holiness personified. And Jesus is himself the manifestation of God’s prophetic vision ecstatically, powerfully, miraculously cast, the prophet who is the prophecy. Jesus is himself the promised land, the chariot of fire, the ultimate and only doorway into heaven. Jesus is the end-all, be-all.

All of the Old Testament “heroes” are surpassed by him; he subsumes them in his brilliance, as he is infinitely greater than they. He is the Passover lamb, the manna in the wilderness, the brazen serpent of Moses held aloft to heal all who will behold him.

He is the great high priest, surpassing all priests.
He is the good shepherd, surpassing all shepherds.
He is the great judge, surpassing all judges.
He is the king of kings, surpassing all kings.
He is the lord of lords, surpassing all earthly masters.
He is the bridegroom, surpassing all husbands.
He is the Rabbi Christ, surpassing all preachers.
He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, surpassing all the best of everybody ever.

And thus it is now as it was then, that we should only see Jesus. Let us pray to the Father as the Greeks said to Philip, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21).

What do we see when we see Jesus in his glory?

From the transfiguration event, we see that Jesus doesn’t just reflect glory — it emanates from him.

Secondly, we see that his righteousness, bleached whiter than any man could manage, surpasses the law and prophets, and certainly surpasses the Pharisees and scribes. Therefore, if we would have the righteousness to be taken to heaven, only owning Jesus’ will do.

And thirdly, we see that in eclipsing Moses and Elijah, Jesus proves himself not simply as their replacement but as their better.

Jesus is better.

Jesus is better than the law (Hebrews 7:22). He “has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). In Galatians 3:19-20 we learn that while the law’s implementation required multiple intermediaries involved in a complex array of logistically difficult working parts, “God is one”—meaning, God saves us by himself. God saves us from himself, through himself, to himself, by himself, for himself. “The gospel,” writes William Cooper, “so much exceeds in glory, that it eclipses the glory of the legal, as the stars disappear when the sun ariseth, and goeth forth in his strength.”

That the law could be fulfilled, what a miracle!

The law is good but Jesus is better. The law is good because it is from God and it is good for what God meant it to do. It is good the way a correct diagnosis is good. But while the law is good like a diagnosis is good, Jesus is better than the law like a cure is better than the diagnosis.

The miracle of the transfiguration, then, while historical is also symbolic of the miracle of God’s forgiveness of sins, removal of the burden of the law, and imputation of Christ’s righteousness to sinners.

(Excerpted from The Wonder-Working God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Miracles)

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